The Fremantle coach sent tagger Crowley to Geelong's Mathew Stokes in the qualifying final before switching him to a rampant Steve Johnson at quarter-time.
Against the Swans, Crowley was sent to Swans co-captain Kieren Jack and kept the All Australian to just 11 possessions while gathering 22 himself and kicking a goal.
"It could have been anyone out of (Ryan) O'Keefe, (Daniel) Hannebery, (Jarrad) McVeigh or Jack," Lyon said.
"But I think it was just a bit of shuffling the deck chairs and we went Jack.
"I think Ryan did a really good job, but the team pressure helps with Ryan's role. We try to be a complementary team. It was a good job."
Swans coach John Longmire was not surprised Crowley went to Jack.
"He is a good player," Longmire said.
"It wasn't surprising he went to Kieren, he'd had an All Australian year.
"He's a big-bodied, good run-with disciplined midfielder and he takes some beating.
"He's a good player, a really good player and it will take a good player to beat him."
Lyon had spoken at length in the lead-up that the preliminary final would be won in the midfield and he was proud of his engine room's performance following on from a big effort against Geelong.
"Their full contingent of midfield was a real worry for us going in but I thought we were really quite strong in there and it has been a feature for the last couple of weeks - and it needs to be a feature against a great midfield next," he said.
Lyon also thought Fremantle should have iced the match in the first quarter on the back of his team's fanatical pressure, but they managed just two goals from 11 shots.
"I thought their first half was absolutely fanatical. I thought the game almost could have been over at quarter-time," he said.
"It was a concern because we’d dominated, and we kicked 2.9 in the first quarter, and a lot of them were gettable.
"History tells you if you don’t take your opportunities, you’re going to be vulnerable. That was a concern."
